It is known to provide a spare wheel for a vehicle in the event of a flat or blowout of one of four wheels of the vehicle. The spare wheel may be carried interior or exterior to the vehicle. Typically, the vehicle has a rear compartment, which contains the spare wheel such that it is packaged between rails of the rear compartment on either a dry or wet side of sheetmetal for the rear compartment. For passenger vehicle applications, the spare wheel is mounted on a spare wheel carrier on the dry side and is pre-tilted to help enable the spare wheel to rotate during a rear impact on the vehicle. During a rear impact, the rails of the rear compartment and the spare wheel carrier move dependent upon one another and hence the rails absorb energy through bending.
Although the above has worked, it is desirable to provide a spare wheel carrier that is rotated to allow the rails to dissipate energy during axial crush. It is also desirable to provide a spare wheel carrier that moves independently of rails for a rear compartment of a vehicle. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a rotatable spare wheel carrier for a vehicle.